Brain Dungeon

It’s time for yet another (and final!) truck update!

I was having kind of a long day today. All in all, it wasn’t horrible, but long nonetheless. At about 4:00, my cell phone rang. It was a number that wasn’t in my contact list, but I recognized it all too well.

It was the dealership.

In the two seconds or so that it took for me to recognize and subsequently answer the phone, I had several thoughts go through my mind. “Is it actually ready? Will there be another delay? If so, what will it be this time? Can I ever be patient with these people again? How many sentences are going to go through my head before I answer this dang phone?”

So, I answered. I half expected it to be the service manager or sales manager. It was neither. It was the service guy that I started dealing with from the very beginning. I did a pretty good job at not sounding irritated when I answered. I figured, it’s a new day, a new week….let’s see if I can cut them some slack.

Well, the guy was calling to tell me that my truck is ready. I light-heartedly asked him if he was sure. He said yes. I thanked him and told him I’d be by to pick it up this evening. I also asked him what my total was going to be (I wanted to make sure I wasn’t going to get charged for that airbag).

You might want to make that you’re seated for the next little bit. No, seriously…sit down! Ok, I know most of you probably are sitting down, but if you happen to be reading my blog post on your phone or something while walking then sit! If you happen to be reading my blog post on a phone or laptop while you’re driving, then put it away and come back to it later…THAT’S NOT SAFE!!!

Ok, anyway, so I asked him for the total.

“Well, as far as I understand…we’re taking care of it for you.”

HUH? That was unexpected!

I wasn’t sure what to say. For a moment, I was actually speechless. I stammered for a second and then said, “Well, I didn’t expect that!” and he said “Well, I’m sure this has been a frustrating experience for you, so we’re just going to go ahead and cover it for you.”

I was a little shocked. A lot shocked. I got off the phone and called Crystal to tell her about it. I suddenly didn’t feel quite right about it. I felt like either the guy misunderstood what he was told or that I needed to at least call back and offer to pay for the brakes – since that part was my fault to begin with (at least I think it was).

For the record, let’s cover what was being done and roughly the cost:
Initial reason for going in:
Wheel wouldn’t turn and airbag light was on – Estimated cost of repairs $550.
Eventually, they found the front rotors needed to be replaced. Add $200
They forgot to add in the key I needed to buy (outrageous cost for a key!) $150
New airbag when the original fix for the airbag light didn’t work $300

If you do the math there, that comes out $1200! So…$1200 for brakes that got screwed up (likely my fault from driving in salt water), a key I SHOULD have gotten when I bought the thing, and airbag stuff that (if you ask me) should be covered by the warranty I purchased.

Relatively speaking, I’m sure this was a small write-off for them. But it was a big deal to me.

So I called back and asked to speak to the sales manager or the service manager. Both were busy and couldn’t come to the phone. I spoke with dude again to make sure he was relaying the information to me correctly. I asked him if there was some mix-up or confusion because it was only the airbag I wasn’t supposed to be paying for. He assured me that the whole bill would be covered. I asked him to have the service manager call me back when he could.

So the service manager called me a short while later and I said something to the effect of “Look, I appreciate what you’re doing here, and if you REALLY want to do it that way, then great, and thanks! But I’m not trying to get something from you for free. I want to make sure we’re doing this fair.”

He basically said, “I don’t see it that way at all. We really dropped the ball on this from the very beginning and every step of the way. It’s been nothing but a nightmare and a headache for you and I think that you shouldn’t have to pay for it. You just bought the car from us, and already had to have service for something that shouldn’t have even come up. Hopefully, we’ll be able to earn the right to do business with you again in the future.”

Wow. I really was stunned. For the record, I really DID feel that I shouldn’t have to pay for any of this. I never would have said that to him, though (unless he directly asked me). I really wasn’t trying to worm a free repair here. I had just had it with their lack of customer service. But – my opinion has changed now.

Not that he bought me off or anything like that. I mean, it may sound that way, but to me it’s been all about customer service from the beginning. I have a motto about customer service and that is “Always treat your customers like you’d want someone to treat your grandmother.” It works for people who don’t hate their grandmother…LOL. To me, good customer service means doing EVERYTHING you can do to satisfy your customer, even if it ends up costing you money.

If you had asked me last week, there is NO WAY I would have said I was satisfied. However, the gesture they offered today was significant. The fact that they decided to do that without any prompting from me, in my opinion, is stellar. I wouldn’t say I’m satisfied with their service department in general, but I would definitely say that their service manager will do what it takes to fix the situation.

So, the experience as a whole may have been nothing but an absolute nightmare, but in the end, they did what they had to do and, I have to say, have earned a chance to do business with me again in the future. Not without caution, mind you – but they have definitely earned one more shot.

I guess it pays to voice your opinion!

No, not really.

I got the phone call yesterday morning from the dealership. Apparently the passenger’s side airbag needed to be replaced for some reason. They he told me that there IS a safety warranty, but it’s only up to 60,000 miles. Which our truck is way past (just a little under 80,000). SOOOO, it is going to cost $265 to replace that airbag (no charge for labor) and $23 for freight and because airbags are considered hazmat, they wouldn’t be able to get it there any sooner than next Monday.

NEXT MONDAY!!!

Uncool. Very very uncool.

I got off the phone and boiled for a bit. I called the dealership and asked to speak to the sales manager who was trying to help me get through all this. He was on the phone, so I didn’t get to speak to him. I left a message to have him call me back.

A few minutes later, the service manager called me. He said “What can I do to make this right?”

I told him, “I’m not sure there is anything you can do at this point! I’m so sick and tired of this crap. You guys can’t get my truck done, you keep charging me more money. I’m not saying you’re doing anything dishonest but this is the stereotypical auto shop horror story!”

He then tells me that he’s going to see what he can do to get me a discount on the airbag. This offers me little consolation.

“Discount?? You know what? I hesitate to say this because this is NOT how I am. I DO NOT believe it trying to get things out of people for free. I am NOT about shorting you money. BUT, if I have to pay for that airbag, then forget it! Give me my truck and we’ll call it done. I’ll take my truck AND MY BUSINESS elsewhere!”

He tells me that he’ll look into it and see what he can do and call me back.

Then I ask about the sales manager. I figured that since it was the sales manager I had called for, that I ought to get to speak to him. Apparently he’s sitting across from the service manager for this call. I ask to speak to him.

I basically repeat everything I said to the service manager. I let him have it about how frustrated I am and how I just can’t fathom the fact that they put this vehicle through all kinds of tests to make sure it was safe for the road and that I haven’t even had the truck for 3 months and the airbag needs to be replaced. I exclaim how furious I am that the extended warranty I purchased since this vehicle was sold to me “as is” didn’t cover something as critical as airbags. It’s not as if the vehicle was in an accident…THEY JUST STOPPED BEING OK!

I repeated my comment about taking my truck elsewhere. I told him to figure out what he had to figure out, but that if I have to pay for the airbags then I’m done. I have absolutely had it and I would rather take my business elsewhere.

“Woah, wait a minute,” he says, “You don’t have to pay for the airbag. It’s covered by your warranty.”

I told him that’s not what the person told me earlier. I told him he’d better get his story straight because I was specifically told that it was NOT covered and that I was going to have to pay an additional $300 to get it done.

He says he’ll look into it and call me back.

Apparently, I finally got their attention.

I got a call less than 5 minutes later. The service manager called and simply said, “Your airbag is NOT covered under the warranty, but don’t worry about it. We’ll take care of it for you at no charge.”

I thank him. I apologize for getting rude and explain that I’d just been pushed beyond my limits. He says he understands and can’t blame me. He then says, “Well, I hope this doesn’t ruin our chances of doing business together again in the future.”

I told him, “To be perfectly honest with you, IT DOES! BUT because you’re taking care of me now, MAYBE there’s still a chance we’ll do business again in the future.

So, there you have it. I had to blow up at them to get their attention. It’s sad, really, because I hate being that way.

NEVER shop at ANTonline.com

After posting about my Best Buy experience yesterday, I felt obligated to finish telling the story about the business I reported to the BBB…so here it is:

Up until recently, I was a faithful buyer of twice. They had reasonable prices, fast turn around…holy cow, it was AWESOME!

Until…

I placed an order for the two restaurant locations that we’re working on building. This time it was for surveillance system equipment. I needed some cameras and some power supplies for said cameras. Placed the order, paid for it, got an order confirmation, everything was hunky-dory.

Then I got a call. Michelle wanted to verify my order and I needed to call her back at a number she provided. So I did. And I reached a voicemail mailbox that did not identify who I was calling but only said “extension 1-1-2 is not available” and instructed me either press 9 to exit voicemail or wait to leave a message. Well…considering this is a BUSINESS – you would think that someone else could either help me or point me to someone ELSE who could help me. Not only that, but I had no indicator that I even dialed ANTonline…this could be a scam. I dialed 9.

Ok…so the number was legit, because I then entered the auto-attendant for ANTonline.com and listened to the choices and finally selected the option for customer service. I explained that I had placed an order, that according to their website, my order had left the warehouse and was sitting at the shipping hub. I also explained that Michelle had left me a message saying she needed to verify something on my order and wondered if there was someone else who could help me because she was not available.

Apparently, ineptitude runs deep at ANTonline.com because the person I was talking to not only did not know who Michelle was, but could not tell me ANYTHING about my order that I didn’t already know. She could not transfer me to anyone who knew anything about my order that I didn’t already know because they can’t do that.

WHAT???

She tells me that her recommendation is to call Michelle’s number again and see if Michelle can give me any information about my order to prove that she was indeed from ANTonline.com. I told her that the same number I used to try to reach Michelle was the same number that I used to reach her.

“Oh”

I think she used her brain-cell (singular) quota for the day.

So I called Michelle again…got the same irritating voicemail mailbox…but I left a message this time with my cell phone number (she had called my desk phone the first time and I was out of the office) and asked her to call me back.

No calls. I called a few additional times throughout the day to see if I could get through. No luck.

I get an email a day or two later that says “My name is Michelle and I’ve been trying to reach you.” as if she tried more than once. She told me I needed to call her right away on the same phone number she left on my voicemail. The email came from support@antonline.com so I figured a response to the email would be fruitless, but I responded anyway. I explained that I had already tried calling her SEVERAL times and that I had even left a message with my cell number. I left my cell number in the email and sent it off. I then attempted to call AGAIN. No luck.

A few minutes later I got a response! It was an AUTORESPONSE! It said, “Thank you for contacting customer support at antonline.com. Please accept this email as acknowledgment of your support inquiry.” It went on to tell me how I can track orders and all kinds of other CRAP. I couldn’t BELIEVE that they sent an autoresponse like that to a REPLY on an email that THEY SENT! I contemplated trying to use telekinesis to force every person involved so far to smash their shin up against something hard and painful or force them to pour vinegar in their eyes…but unfortunately I have not yet mastered the art of telekinesis.

This went on for a few days and I was starting to get irritated that they hadn’t shipped my order yet. Especially since I couldn’t answer whatever question they had because they were not reachable. I had, in the past few days, talked to a few more inept ANTonline call center idiots who all told me the same thing. They couldn’t transfer me, they couldn’t answer my questions, they didn’t know what Michelle needed to ask. They offer to submit a support ticket to see what the delay is and I tell them that the problem is their support team is non-responsive and I’m tired of waiting for them to call me back.

By this point I was pretty irritated and talking not-so-nicely to the people at the call center. My assistant chimes in and offers to call in like he has no idea what’s going on to see if he can find out the status of the order. He does and they tell him the same status that’s on their website (because they are probably using the same interface as we are to find the status) and say that they can submit a support ticket to see what the delay is. He allows them to do so.

I get an email a few hours later. It says nothing more than “This order cannot be processed and has been refunded.”

That’s it. Verbatim. No explanation. No apology. NOTHING.

I call in AGAIN. This time I have a bright idea. Instead of going through customer service, I go through sales. I get someone who sounds more intelligent (probably because they care about selling to people…just not supporting them). This guy looks up my order, explains to me that Michelle works in accounting and wanted to verify information on my credit card (that they had charged before she ever called me), but that she had already found what she needed.

Great! SO WHY WAS MY ORDER CANCELLED??????

Apparently the item was out of stock. I pull up their website which conveniently shows how many are in stock. I ordered 16 cameras. At the time of order there were 31 in stock. Now there are showing 24 in stock. Just in case my mental math fails me on that, I check with a calculator…yep…24 minus 16 really does equal 8…there should still be a surplus of 8 cameras. Trying to be polite so that I don’t make matters worse at this point I calmly ask, “So when do you think you WILL be able to fill my order?”

I kid you not. He said, “look, we have seven warehouses nation-wide so unless we just get a massive shipment of these cameras, we’ll never be able to fill your order.”

It took everything I had not to convert myself into an electric signal and force myself through the phone lines so I could jump out of his phone or headset and strangle him with the cord.

You would think that with seven warehouses, they could CONSOLIDATE and get me my order…that is, after all, what you do when you’re in business to MAKE MONEY.

Not according to this salesman. I told him I wanted a manager or supervisor to call me and he said “no one is going to be able to do anything for you” and basically ended the call there. I replied to the vague “your order has been refunded” email and demanded that someone call me. I also went onto their website and submitted a support request explaining the situation and asked that someone call me.

I get an email a few hours later that says (paraphrased),

“Our Texas warehouse is misreporting on the website. We have reported it to our support team. We are sorry for any confusion but no amount of phone calls or emails will change this until we have more stock.” That last sentence is word-for-word. On top of being inept, now they turn to being antagonistic.

I reported them to the Better Business Bureau and said that it was unacceptable that they were willing to charge over $800 to my credit card immediately but that they were not willing to talk to me about what happened. I was upset because their customer service was extremely poor and there was not one single returned phone call.

Their response? The forwarded the antagonistic email. The BBB asked if I accepted their response. I very verbosely explained to them WHY I did not accept that response. ANTonline responded again by saying that the credit card was refunded.

I was too busy to respond again in the few days it took before the BBB closed the case. But you know what…it’s not worth my time anymore. I’ll just post this blog and hopefully people doing a search for ANTonline or ANTonline sucks or ANTonline reviews will stumble upon my blog and learn just what a miserable company they really are.

But I don’t hold a grudge! PPPFFFFFFFTTTT.

I know what causes baldness.

No. Really.

You may have heard that it’s a result of hormones…but I don’t think that’s right. It comes from the hair-pulling, desk/head-banging experiences that people have to go through!

After reading The Rock Chick’s thread I Swear (Warning: Strong, but necessary language!), I felt inspired to share something that I went through during the past couple of days.

You see, I work for a franchisee of a well known Quick Service Restaurant (read: Fast Food) chain. I am the IT Manager and I handle things like point-of-sale systems, surveillance systems, back office PCs, dining room music, drive-through audio…things like that. My team and I (read: both of us) not only maintain the equipment, but we put it into the new stores our company is building. In order to DO that, you have to purchase the equipment…enter another well known chain…Best (read: Worst) Buy.

Before I go off on my little rant, let me just say that I am prone to swearing off stores for bad experiences. I expect the highest levels of customer service and when I don’t get what I expect I get very angry, turn it all inward, make a mountain out of a molehill and write the company and tell them I will never shop with them again. I even reported one online business to the BBB in the last couple of weeks due to the complete and utter ineptitude of their service, but that’s a different blog for a different day. I have not yet completely decided whether or not Best Buy will be my next boycott, but let me tell my tale.

Oh, one other quick note: the sequence that leads to this story sounds like it’s made up, but I SWEAR to you it’s true. Like I said…I’m an IT Manager. I know that most of the time when people claim what I’m about the claim it’s a P.I.C.N.I.C (problem in chair not in computer) or a bad infestation of the U.S.E.R. (no acronym, just fun to say it that way) virus.

So we (read: my assistant) went to the local Best Buy to purchase some equipment we needed. He called me from the location to tell me that he found a variant of what we needed to use that might serve us better and because one was discontinued and the other was opened, he was going to get them for a discounted price! EXCELLENT – I love being able to get things cheaper. The sales associate explained to him the difference between what we normally get and what we would be getting and it sounded like it could save us some shopping and some money, so I figured, sure…why not? Oh…except one thing he’ll need to go with it isn’t in stock…so he goes to Circuit City.

At Circuit City he explains to the sales associate what he is looking for and why and what he will be using it with and for and the sales associate explains that what the Best Buy associate sold him was not what the Best Buy associate TOLD him it was. After deciding that the Circuit City guy knew what he was talking about (and after deciding that must be the reason the other piece of equipment was returned the first time!) he returned the equipment to Best Buy and got what we were looking for from Circuit City…except that part that he went to Circuit City for originally – because it was not in stock there either.

So – he goes back to the good ol‘ internet and tries to place an order on the Best Buy website for in-store pick up at a location 3 hours away (where we are building the restaurant) since we will be there in the early part of next week. No luck. The item is not available for in-store pick-up. No big deal…it’s still a few days away…we’ll just have it delivered our restaurant location nearest where we are building.

Long intro – I know…that’s what started it.

I got the confirmation email the next morning saying that the order was placed, but not yet shipped. I looked at the address – it was not the location we agreed to send it to. It was another location in the same city – no big deal – but I asked my assistant “So you decided to have it delivered to Boca Chica after all?” (Boca Chica is what we call the restaurant located on the street name “Boca Chica“)

“No – I had it sent to Padre” (the location on Padre Island Hwy)

“It says here ‘Boca Chica‘.”

So here I am thinking to myself that perhaps it’s possible he got confused and entered the wrong address…but he swears he entered the right address. He’s a smart guy…I don’t like doubting he did what he’s telling me he did. I look again at the address…something’s not right. The address has the STREET NAME of Boca Chica, but the STREET NUMBER is of our Padre Island Highway location. Ok…now something REALLY seems off…is it possible he got in a hurry and entered the street number of one and the street name of the other? Trust me…as much as it sounds that MUST be the case…it ABSOLUTELY WAS NOT. Best Buy CHANGED THE ADDRESS.

Ok…maybe Best Buy didn’t change it, but their system did. I SWEAR IT DID! It changed ONLY the street name! I went into the online account we used to place the order and added a “ship to:” address and proceeded to enter the correct address…clicked save…and now had TWO instances of the wrong address. I did it a third time to make sure that I didn’t do something wrong…now I had THREE instances of the wrong address!!! So…I deleted them, because, what good would any of the wrong address serve me? I called Best Buy.

To make an already very long story as short as possible, I then proceeded to go back and forth between Best Buy and UPS while trying to get the address corrected. Best Buy would only tell me “Since it’s already in the ’shipping’ state, we can’t make any changes to the address,” and then tell me that my only option was to call UPS. I’ve been through this before…I knew they wouldn’t let me change anything since I’m not the shipper. I told Best Buy this…they cared not. “Call UPS” they said.

So I did.

And it sucked.

I explained the story to UPS. Did they care? Well, they seemed to…but there was nothing they could do as I was the not the shipper. This did not surprise me.

Back and forth – probably 10-15 phone calls and my desperately and KINDLY trying to get SOMEONE to help me. My last conversation with UPS ended up with them telling me the only way that I can change the address is after they make the first delivery attempt and it fails.

This is true…I said this to them…

“Look, I don’t have a problem with that. I have no problem, whatsoever, in picking up the item at your location. MY concern is that the delivery will NOT fail. I have no idea what’s at the location that your driver is going to go to. It could be an empty plot of land. There could be A COW standing there ready to accept the package. Or, it could be a legitimate residence or business and there could be someone there who is NOT expecting a package, but when they see that it’s from Best Buy they will gladly accept it. It’s not like the driver is going to require a signature, and if they do, they’re not going to ask for an ID. I would rather it not go to the wrong place to begin with. Can you change the address and charge ME the $10 fee? I’ll give you my credit card.”

Nope…since it was done using the Best Buy UPS account…there’s nothing they can do.

So I make ONE FINAL CALL to the Best Buy customer service.

I basically tell them the same paragraph you see above. But…nope…there is nothing they can do. So I said something like, “Look…I’m not trying to be a pain. I have worked in a call center, I know you are doing everything you can do…and I know you’re telling me that there’s nothing you or any supervisor can do…and I get that. I really do. BUT…there HAS to be SOMEONE there who is in charge of the Best Buy campaign in your call center who has the authority or can call someone at Best Buy Corporate who has the authority to make a five minute phone call to UPS and give them your account number and say “please change the address.”

This guy – in his inability to help me – actually helped me more than anyone else that day. (I probably spent a total of 1.5 – 2 hours on the phone trying to get this resolved). He said, “there probably is someone here who can do that, but if there is I have no idea who it is or how to get in touch with them. The only thing I can suggest is perhaps going to our website and seeing if the number for our corporate office is on our web page.”

DUH!!!!

I pulled up the web page and sure enough on the right hand side near the bottom was their corporate address and phone number. It was too late in the day at this point to call…so I called the next day and FINALLY got in touch with someone who could make the five minute phone call to UPS to change the address.

So…I think I have thinner hair…and a flatter forehead…a bruised brain…and a bad taste in my mouth for Best Buy…but mission accomplished.

Just wait til you get to hear about my other online merchant story!